


Small Steps

by Bubbles759



Series: Fire Alarms and Cooking Lessons [11]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Boys Kissing, Clumsy Kili, Comfort, Fluff, Hurt Fíli, M/M, Silly Boys, awesome Uncle Bilbo, mentions of burns and treatment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-13
Updated: 2017-02-13
Packaged: 2018-09-24 02:55:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9696581
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bubbles759/pseuds/Bubbles759
Summary: Fíli needs some rest and love after the accident. Kíli needs reassurance. And what's happening with the knives?





	

**Author's Note:**

> This picks up directly after Cooking Lessons and Hospital Trips. A little hurt comfort and some fluff for our boys. And Bilbo meets Kíli! Finally.

Kíli was sitting at the table, his psychology textbooks sitting on the table in front of him, typing up is latest assignment. He was so engrossed in his work he didn’t notice the hot chocolate he’d made going cold, or the second person in the kitchen.

He started when a pair of arms gently wrapped around his shoulders, the right hand bandaged and the left forearm mostly covered in gauze and bandages. Fíli leaned against his back and Kíli breathed in the smell of smoke that clung to him. He felt a kiss pressed against the crown of his head.

“What are you working on?” Fíli’s voice was rough and gravelly, and Kíli winced at the thought of how much smoke he must have inhaled.

“It’s a social psych assignment,” he said as he saved his work. “Nothing hugely interesting yet.” Fíli hummed into his hair. “Do you want something to eat or drink? A shower maybe?”

“Can’t shower. Can’t get the bandages wet yet. Just glad I don’t have any assignments due myself. Might be an issue.” Fíli slid his arms from Kíli’s shoulders and slipped into another chair at the table. Kíli took a moment to really look at him. Fíli’s golden hair was darkened with soot and smoke where it wasn’t hidden by a white bandage. His right hand, settled carefully on the table, had the wrist and palm wrapped tightly with another bandage, the white stained a little red on the palm where he’d bled through it. He left arm was held protectively close to his chest and still. The shoulder was almost covered with gauze and bandages and the top of his forearm was the same. The white of the coverings were a stark contrast to his golden skin. The upper arm and hand were unscathed, as was his right arm. His face was blessedly free from burns or cuts. Fíli was ambidextrous so he could write his assignments with his left hand but it would make the arm ache and he was predominately right handed.

“What time is it?”

Kíli checked the time on his laptop. “7.30,” he said, and saw Fíli struggling to get up. “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Pain meds,” Fíli answered, his left hand clenching. Kíli kicked himself for not noticing how much pain he was in.

“Where are they?” Fíli pointed to the kitchen counter, and Kíli saw the white bag with a large green cross next to the kettle. He grabbed the bag and filled a glass with water, then sat down at the table.

“What do you need?”

“Pain meds first. The rest can wait.” Kíli nodded and pulled out the right box, seeing Fíli clench his teeth of of the corner of his eye. He quickly read the directions before popping 2 tablets out of the packet and into Fíli’s outstretched hand. He threw them back and swallowed them with the glass of water, then gently placed his forehead on the cool table.

After a few minutes his shoulders lost the tension they’d been carrying, and Kíli stood, gently running a hand down Fíli’s back. “Come on, come to bed. You can take the anti-inflammatory pills in bed, and then get some more sleep.”

Fíli nodded and let Kíli lead him to the bedroom and with a wry smile he realised it was the first time he’d been in there.

“Not the way I’d planned to spend the first night in your room,” he mumbled.

Kíli blushed and giggled. “That’s ok. We’ll get there.

Fíli stumbled as the medication made him sleepy. He was only vaguely aware of Kíli pushing him onto the bed and tucking him in. He rolled onto his right side, his left arm curled in front of his chest. He barely registered Kíli leaving the room to clean up the kitchen and make sure everything was locked up properly and he was asleep before he came back.

********

The next morning Fili woke feeling heavy, and comfortable. The pain was there, on the edge of his mind, and a warm, heavy weight was resting against his back. Carefully, mindful of his shoulder, he felt behind him, grabbing Kíli’s arm and draping it around his waist. Then he snuggled back into Kíli’s chest and further into the sheets and duvet.

“Careful. Don’t hurt yourself,” a sleepy voice mumbled into his ear.

“Don’t care. Cuddles,” Fíli replied, already on his way back to sleep. Kíli’s arm tightened a little and Fíli drifted back to sleep with warm breath on his neck and a strong chest pressed to his back.

********

The next time he woke, the bed was empty and his shoulder was aching. He carefully rolled onto his back, blinking blue eyes open properly. His gaze landed on Kíli, sitting on the edge of the bed, 2 white pills in his hand and a glass of water on the night stand.

“You’ve got the worst bed head,” Kíli said before he could stop himself. Fíli just blinked up at him sleepily, his golden hair a tangled mess making him look more like a lion cub than anything else. “Here,” he held out the pain killers. “You need to take this. I read the instruction in the bag. Your bandages need to be changed and the burns cleaned and redressed.”

Fíli took the pills gratefully, downing the whole glass of water. “Don’t want to,” he pouted, his voice even more gravelly than the day before.

“You have to.”

“It’s going to hurt.”

“I know, but we have to keep them clean. Stop them getting infected.” Kíli looked at him, dark chocolate eyes large and pleading. “That message from your uncle yesterday was the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me.” Maybe not quite but it was certainly up there. “Don’t make me go through that again because you don’t take care of yourself.”

Fíli sighed. “Fine. But–”

“I’ll help you. And we can do it at your place if you’re more comfortable there.”

“Doesn’t matter. But my clothes are there.”

Without thinking, Kíli leaned forward and kissed him gently. Fíli returned it, the kiss getting less gentle as it went on. Eventually Fíli pulled back. “Thank you. For taking care of me last night. You didn’t have to.”

Kíli smiled. “I’ll always take care of you. Now, get out of that bed. We’ll go to your place so you can have a shower and then we’ll take a look at those burns.

Fíli sighed but did as he was told.

********

After a shower, Fíli felt more human. The smell of smoke remained in his hair as he could reach to wash it, and he wasn’t going to ask Kíli to do it for him. The other man was still shy around physical intimacy, although kissing was getting more and more comfortable. And that morning was the first time he’d initiated anything, so Fíli felt very positive.

When Kíli removed the dressings, he couldn’t help but wince, grateful Fíli couldn’t see. The burns weren’t terrible, but they were red, and sore looking. There were a few blisters he could see, and a few that had been popped at the hospital. The information from the hospital said not to pop the remaining blisters unless necessary, so Kili left them alone. He grabbed a clean cloth from where it was soaking in clean, cool water and placed it on the shoulder burns, before doing the same on his forearm. Then he unwrapped Fíli’s right hand. To his relief it wasn’t burned, just badly scraped.

“They think I put my hand down to stop my fall. Probably saved my face.”

“Something I’m very grateful for,” he replied as he gently cleaned the hand with some antibacterial wipes before covering it in cream and re-wrapping it.

When he took the cloths off Fíli’s shoulder and arm they were warm. He grabbed a pair of clean gloves from Fíli’s kit before he gently covered the burns with antibiotic ointment and redressed them. He left the bandages off at Fíli’s request, saying it was too restrictive, but he noticed Fíli still held the arm close to his chest.

“Want to watch a movie?”

Fíli nodded. “Bring your study stuff. I’ll probably fall asleep again soon.”

Kíli laughed. “Understandable. You pick a movie and get it started, I’ll grab my stuff.”

Fíli wasn’t lying. Less than half an hour into the movie and he was sleeping soundly on the sofa. Kíli pulled the blanket from the back of the sofa to cover him and went back to his assignment, the sound of The Avengers in the background.

********

A few days after the accident and life was back to normal. Fíli was back at work, although on lighter duties for another week until the skin on his shoulder was more healed. Their nights were spent curled up on someone’s couch, kisses and light touches exchanged freely.

“Are you my boyfriend?” Kíli asked quietly one night.

“Do you want me to be?” Fíli had stilled at the question. He’d been thinking of the brunette as his boyfriend for a couple of weeks, before the accident at least, but he didn’t want to push the younger man into anything he wasn’t ready for.

Kíli nodded shyly. “I’d like that.”

“Me too,” he replied before he kissed his _boyfriend_ again. Bilbo was going to have a field day.

********

A week after the knives had been delivered to his door Kíli stared at the dark brick building with apprehension. Erebor Private School was still lit up, lights shining from the many windows. He knew that many adult classes ran from the secondary school of an evening, but he still had no clue what he was doing there. The knives were a heavy weight in his backpack, along with the notebook and pens he’d been asked to bring. He’d felt incredibly self conscious getting on the tube with a roll of knives in his bag, and was sure he looked suspicious with the way he kept glancing around the whole time.

Taking a deep breath, Kíli pushed the shiny silver buzzer next to the gate, waiting to be let into the school grounds. As he walked to reception Fíli’s reaction played through his mind.

_“What’s this?” Fíli asked, picking up the envelope and paper from where it had fallen off the kitchen bench. He’d noticed the roll of dark fabric too._

_“The knives or the letter?” Kíli looked apprehensive. “Someone named B Baggins sent them to me. I have to be at the school tomorrow night. Not sure why.”_

_“Oh thank you Bilbo,” Fíli muttered under his breath. “I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m sure you’ll be fine.”_

_“I don’t know,”_ _Kíli said as he leaned into Fíli’s embrace. I’m terrible at anything to do with knives. You’ve seen me.”_

_“You’ll learn. Just trust yourself. You’ll be amazing.”_

_The gentle reassurance had helped Kíli’s confidence level immensely and a quick kiss had turned into a rather long make out session on the couch._

********

Kíli looked around the, rather large, reception room with wide eyes. He’d been enrolled in public schools, whatever the current foster family could get him into, nothing ever as grand as the school he was standing in. He wandered to the reception desk, tapping on the glass partition to get the attention of the blonde woman behind the desk.

“Excuse me, I’m here to see Mr Baggins.”

The receptionist barely looked up. “Yes. Turn left through the door, right at the hall, through the dining hall, up the stairs to the 3rd floor, turn right and it’s the 4th door on the left. Room says home economics on the door but there will be other students around if you get lost.”

Before Kíli could say anything else she pressed a button at the desk and he heard the door unlock. He squared his shoulders.

_‘Right, I can do this,’_ he thought to himself. _‘Left through the door.’_ Kíli walked through the door and turned left into a brightly lit, but empty hallway. He walked past the Head’s office, and the medical room, then came to the end of the hall. His only option was to turn right. Kíli moved down the next corridor, shoes squeaking on the polished wooden floor as he walked through the dining hall and stopped at the bottom of a flight of stairs. He looked up though the middle, counting at least 5 floors above his head.

_‘Ok. 3 rd floor, 4th door. Or was it 4th floor, 3rd door?”_ Kíli thought to himself as he started to climb the stairs. The school was unnervingly quiet, and he could admit to himself, if no one else, that it made him feel uneasy. Like he was about to be the victim in every horror movie ever made.

He slowly made his way up the stairs. He passed the 1st and 2nd floors and hesitated on the 3rd floor. He heard voices on the floor above him and that made the decision for him. He passed 3 women on the stairs going down.

_‘It must be 4 th floor, 3rd door.’_ He jogged up the remaining steps, tripping on the 2nd last and landing at the top, sprawled on his belly. Thankfully no one was around the witness his clumsiness, and he stood, and dusted himself off just before someone pushed open the door from the hallway.

“Oh, hello,” the man said in surprise. He was at least a head shorter than Kíli, maybe more, with curly auburn hair, and bright green eyes.  “Can I help you?”

“Ah, yes. Maybe? I don’t know. I need to see Mr Baggins. The lady at reception gave me directions but she spat them out so fast I got confused and I’ve never been here before so–”

“It’s alright, my boy. Ellen at the front desk can be a bit abrupt. But, luckily for you, I’m Bilbo Baggins.”

“Oh, thank God,” Kíli sighed. “I’m Kíli. You sent me a note and some knives. Although, I’m not sure why, or even how you know me. I mean, they’re beautiful knives, but I don’t –”

“I’m Fíli’s uncle,” the shorter man cut in again.

Kíli was torn between blushing like an idiot and being mortified that he had embarrassed himself in front of his boyfriend’s uncle the first time he met him. He was wishing the floor would open up and swallow him when Bilbo spoke again.

“It’s alright, my boy. I knew you would be surprised.” He started walking down the stairs and Kíli followed him. “Fíli called me the morning of his accident asking if I had any space in my beginner class. As happened, I had a student drop out that very morning after his phone call. I was planning on calling you, or coming around to talk to you at the very least, then Fíli got hurt and everything kind of flew out the window as you know. The post seemed the easier option.” Bilbo pushed open the door to the third floor and walked down the hall, opening the 4th door on the left. Kíli wasn’t really surprised to see the benches set out with mixing bowls, and measuring spoons and cups. He _was_ surprised to see that the benches were free of any ingredients.

He could hear other students coming down the hall towards the classroom.

“Why don’t you take a seat,” Bilbo coaxed as he walked up behind the teachers bench, putting down a satchel and a ring binder on the bench.

Kíli obeyed without really paying any attention. He dropped his eyes to the desk in front of him when people started filing into the room, feeling incredibly conspicuous in his worn jeans black tank, a flannel shirt thrown over the top. He ignored when someone sat beside him, but started when Bilbo clapped his hands together.

“Ok, let’s get started. I am Bilbo Baggins and this is Cooking 101. Otherwise known as a very basic beginners course. I will not teach you how to make an amazing, 5 star, 3 course meal. I will not be showing you how to make spectacular cakes, and pastries, and desserts. You can come to my restaurant to sample those. Or take one of the higher level courses after you have finished this one. I _will_ be showing you how _not_ to cut your fingers off when slicing and dicing, how to measure your ingredients properly, how to take care of your cooking utensils and implements. At the end of this course you _will_ be able to make simple, delicious food for yourself and other and you will be able to put together a nice breakfast, lunch or dinner for friends or partners.”  The other students chuckled.

“So, let’s get started. I hope everyone has brought a set of quality knives and some pen and paper with them. There will be no cooking today or for the next 2 lessons, until we get some basic knowledge and skills out of the way.”

With that, Bilbo launched into the class. Kíli wrote furiously, noting everything Bilbo said. It wasn’t until the class had finished and they were packing up that the person sitting next to Kíli tapped him on the arm.

“Kíli?”

Startled, he looked up into big blue eyes.

“Ori! I didn’t know you’d be here.” Kíli knew Ori in a vague sense. They shared a couple of classes. The redhead had plans to be a writer, but was taking a couple of first year psychology classes too.

“Yeah, Dori suggested it. He’s considering closing the cafe at a later time, and he wants to make sure I can cook something edible before he does. I swear he treats me like a 2 year old sometimes.”

“At least he cares,” Kíli said, remembering back to his own family.

“True.” Ori seemed oblivious to Kíli’s inner turmoil. He looked down when his phone started to vibrate on the table. “Dori,” he sighed. He packed up his things into his bag, grabbing the still ringing phone off the table. “I’ll see you in class tomorrow.” He threw a wave over his shoulder as he headed out of the room.

Slowly Kíli packed up his own things. “Kíli? Would you like a lift home?” Bilbo was standing in front of him. “Are you ok?” he asked after taking another look at the boy in front of him. He was radiating sadness all of a sudden.

Kíli shook himself to get rid of the melancholy feeling. “If you don’t mind, a lift would be great.” Then he thought about it for a second. “Are you using me as an excuse to check up on Fíli?”

Bilbo didn’t even look repentant. “Maybe. I know you’re taking care of him but I always like to see these things for myself. And, I have his favourite meal, and apple pie for dessert.”

Kili’s laugh rang out through the now deserted hallways as they made their way out to where Bilbo’s car was parked. “Bribing him with food?”

“Always have. From the time I first met him after his parents’ deaths. It’s how Thorin and I got him to talk again.”

Kíli didn’t know anything about Fíli’s past. Only that he had lived with his uncles, and never bought up his parents. Now he knew why.

As Bilbo deftly manoeuvred the car through London’s busy streets, Kíli vowed that he and his boyfriend would start talking more about the important things. If Fíli was in a good mood after Bilbo’s incredible smelling cooking, maybe they would even start after dinner.

**Author's Note:**

> I have almost finished the next chapter of Durin's Wolf, so hopefully that will be up next. If you've got anything you'd like to see in this series let me know :D


End file.
